URBANA — When the University of Illinois College of Medicine went looking for a topic for a series of health lectures to present to the community, there was clearly one stand-out issue affecting a lot of people: obesity.

"It's hard to pick up a newspaper without seeing an article about obesity," said Dr. William Marshall, associate dean for clinical affairs at the Urbana campus medical school. "The obesity rates of children are just mind-boggling."

Want to learn something about obesity and some ways to fight it that may surprise you?

The UI College of Medicine in Urbana has planned three evenings of community education about obesity, and each of the lectures is free and open to everyone.

Each session will be held at Hawthorne Suites, 101 Trade Center Drive, C, starting at 6:30 p.m., and will include three brief speakers, a question-and-answer period and light refreshments.

The first session, set for Tuesday, will focus on the demographics, science and medical implications of obesity, Marshall said.

The second session on Sept. 27 will focus on family dynamics involved in obesity, the health impact of obesity in children and a public-health approach to obesity prevention.

The series will wrap up Oct. 4, covering metabolic testing, and medical and surgical treatments for obesity.

About one-third of U.S. adults are obese, meaning they have a body mass index of 30 or higher. For an adult 5 feet, 9 inches tall, that's a weight of 230 pounds or more, according to government statistics.

Obesity among youths tripled from 1980 to 2008, with one-third of children and adolescents now overweight or obese.

Janet Liechty, a UI social work professor who will be speaking Sept. 27, said there's a lot more that goes into weight management than energy-in, energy-out.

Sure, she said, most people just need to eat less, "but there are a lot of other factors that go into it."

From a family perspective, some things to consider include: food choices, the kinds of behavior that are being modeled, the kinds of snacks that are available, the regularity of eating, how stress is managed, the quality of communication and relationships in the family, how much TV is being watched, how much time is being spent outdoors and even how people in the family travel to various destinations.

Do family members always hop in the car to get everywhere or is walking or riding a bike sometimes an option, she asks.

Do families eat meals together? That's important, Liechty says, not only because it adds meal regularity and helps us to eat better, but it adds that all-important face time and point of connection for busy families.

"For kids, that routine of having regular meal times, it helps them feel cared for," she said.

In fact, building the quality of family relationships and supporting open communications is one of the best ways to model good stress management, something else that's important in fighting obesity in the family, she says.

What do we typically reach for in the kitchen in times of stress? Cupcakes, chips and other empty calories.

"How we manage stress is very important for these kids' ability to manage stress without over-using food as a stress reliever," Liechty said.

Marshall, an internal medicine physician and endocrinologist who will be giving an overview on obesity the first evening, said the lecture series has been designed to draw both families and health care providers, but the information will be understandable for a general audience.

"We'd really would love to have families there, and people with issues of obesity," he said.

People are welcome to attend as many of the sessions as they like, Marshall said.